Pretense
by Hareta
Summary: Why do you and Kyousuke hate each other so much?...I'm loosing control...Sadness? Why would he be sad?... Thanks to klyukaizer and Kamui Shinou for inspiration.


Standard Disclaimers Applied. I don't own CGT and its characters, though I would love that. My first CGT fic and as always, I petition flamers to give me a break. Roast me alive with the second if it'll please you but spare the first! This fic's a short senseless pointless one on Kyousuke and Kuroudo and I didn't intend it to be shounen ai but it did seem like that some part in the end. Saa...I'll leave it up to you. Think of it yaoi or otherwise and I won't really care. Thanks and enjoy!^^ ~Kura  
  
~O0OoO0O~  
  
|Pretense|  
  
"Why do you and Kyousuke hate each other so much?"  
  
He abruptly stopped in his training, the light wooden sword still raised high above him, turning his head to glance at the person who asked the sudden question. A young brunette sat cross-legged on their lawn a few feet to his left, looking at him intently for an answer. He heaved an inaudible sigh and continued, taking a small step forward and slashing through the air, the sword now a straight line in front of him.   
  
"Kuroudo?" the persistent voice came.   
  
"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Marino," he replied, a slight frown appearing on his thin red lips as an annoyed expression took over his features. He leaned his weapon against one of the trees surrounding them and grabbed a towel, shifting his attention to the scorching hot sun that hung high above them. Its position suggests an hour or so past noon. //The rest of the team should be here in a while. // He looked back at the younger gearfighter who still sat on the carpet of green grass, staring at him expectantly. He shook his head in an exasperated sort of way. "Why are you looking at me like that? You know the reason."  
  
"The fight you had a year ago, while you were still in the Griffon team?" Kouya asked softly, almost to himself. Kuroudo didn't even bother to nod his head in agreement. "That doesn't make much sense though. You used to be the best of friends and I know that neither of you two is that shallow," he continued, chin resting on one of his hands as if he is really thinking about it. His brow furrowed in concentration for a moment and then he relaxed, flashing his usual self-assured almost unnerving smile. "What's the 'real' reason you and Kyousuke hate each other so much?" he asked, rephrasing his question.  
  
"Whatever that is, it's none of your business, brat," he snapped angrily, walking towards Kouya and glaring down on him. And then he blinked, realizing what he was doing and that he has just called his teammate a brat as well as admitted that there _is_ another reason why he hated the gearmaster. //I'm loosing control.// He remained still and silent as the other stared up at him with wide eyes, obviously trying to find words but too stunned with him and the sudden difference in his behavior to find any. Kuroudo opened his mouth to say something, perhaps an apology, but someone beat him to it.  
  
"There you are!" Kaoru exclaimed, not noticing the two boys jump in surprise at the sound of her voice. She stood a couple of yards or so away from them, hands on her hips and an irritated look on her face. "Your mom's serving Jirou and Kyousuke tea in the living room, Kuroudo, and she asked me to call you."  
  
Turning back to his typical and rather aloof self, Kuroudo simply nodded his head and turned to Kouya, who was already back to the blithe guy he usually is. //Now I'm starting to wonder if he's really the carefree and clueless one I think he is.// He helped him stand up and then walked back to the tree to retrieve his weapon, calling over his shoulder that he'll just get changed and then join them.  
  
~*~  
  
"Where's Kuroudo?" Jirou asked them the moment they stepped into the room.   
  
"Getting changed, he was practicing kendo when I found them," Kaoru answered, sitting down. Kouya sat down next to her, glancing at him to see his reaction to her words. The gearmaster caught his gaze however and he quickly looked away, feeling uncomfortable. Dark eyes beneath round glasses narrowed suspiciously to mere slits. //What is Kouya up to this time? //  
  
"I don't care to where he is or what it is he's doing."   
  
The words just slipped out of him. His own sudden rather defensive statement surprised Kyousuke a lot but he fought hard not to let it show. Luckily, neither Jirou nor Kaoru heard as they were both currently engaged in a heated conversation about something obviously only they will find of interest or else the rest of them would have been already dragged into discussion even if against their will. Kouya _must_ have heard, though he shows none of it in his features, he is still staring at him but now more blatantly. // I feel like a goldfish being gawked at. //   
  
"Why _again_ are we here if I may ask?" Kyousuke asked the question for maybe the third time since he arrived, the annoyance in it transparent as opposed to its fakeness. He watched as Kaoru turned around to face him, telling him to shut up and looking nervously around for Kuroudo's mother. She heaved a sigh or relief when she found the coast clear and then shifted her eyes back to him, no longer patient and lengthy in her explanation as she had been a while ago.  
  
"_Because_," she started, looking at him pointedly. "The members of the Tobita team need to spend some time with each other - outside of meetings. And since Kuroudo refuses to leave his house today for some strange reason he won't tell any of us, and since we rarely come here anyway, we're here."  
  
He rolled his eyes and looked towards the door instead, detesting girls and their weird ideas of 'bonding'. Bad move. His eyes locked with light blue ones as his former partner appeared, wearing his usual violet vest and long-sleeved white blouse. His golden hair was wet and tousled, probably from a quick shower, but Kyousuke saw none of that, only the sadness in those sapphires before they were hastily masked with cold indifference as the other broke the eye contact. //Sadness? Why would he be sad?// A small frown appeared on his lips, one that turned into a disapproving scowl as Kouya's muffled snickers reached his ears, the sound quite hard to miss.  
  
Kuroudo had the keenest sense of hearing among them but he didn't seem to have heard. Kyousuke was sure he had though, and either did not know why Kouya was laughing like that or didn't care. The latter thought brought him pain and he almost winced, but controlled the reaction before it occurred. //Why? There's no reason for me to feel pain. I know too well that he doesn't care about me. // And with that, he was inconspicuously more silent than usual for the rest of the afternoon, oblivious to the fact that so was his ex-best friend.  
  
~*~  
  
"Dear, are your friends gone already?"  
  
"Yes, mother," he replied, nodding his head and smiling sweetly for the pale-faced blonde woman in front of him. Placing a tender kiss on one of her ashen cheeks as he passed her, he noticed Kyousuke's pale violet carrier lying on once corner of the living room. He frowned and stooped down beside it, resting one of his hands against its smooth but hard surface. //He forgot this behind? Something must be really bothering him, I wonder what. // Grabbing hold of the strap, he placed it above his right shoulder and straightened, now carrying beside him the gearmaster's case which he knew contained important files and research, spare parts and tools, and maybe even Dino Spartan. "I'll be in my room resting if there's anything," he said to his mother, flashed another smile, and made his way to his room.   
  
As soon as he crossed the threshold and the wooden door closed behind him he felt winded, shaking his head as he held it with both of his hands. Pulling Kyousuke's rather heavy bag off of him, he carefully placed it down beside Shooting Mirage on top of his desk, falling into his bed like a limp rag doll. Painstakingly he pushed his detached masks to the back of his mind, reserving them for another day. These cold veils he always had ready in his subconscious whenever a particular someone is near by, drawing them quickly over his eyes to hide from everyone the sadness and pain the very sight of that someone brought him.   
  
He frowned as a memory of this afternoon crossed his mind. How was he supposed to know that Kyousuke would be staring right into his eyes, delving right into his thoughts and emotions, the moment he entered the room? He didn't have all his complicated defenses and shields up yet and by the time he has managed to at least appear distant and break free of that capturing though at the same time penetrating gaze, the gearmaster surely has already read him like an open book, fathoming all the feelings inside of him as they lay out in the open, bare of any pretense. The confused and extremely worried look that played across his face then was certainly not a barely discernible one, and it must have been what caused Kouya to act the way he did. //I'm pretty sure that's that and Marino didn't notice what happened between us though.//  
  
Long since realizing that things of the past can never be returned nor actions already made be undone, he gave up on regretting his afternoon, fixing his eyes instead outside. No birds flew in the sky and if there were any, they would have to possess dark colors for the light blue eyes failed to distinguish them amidst the darkening by the minute backdrop of the sky. No, there wasn't any, else he would have heard already heard their night songs or at least the distant flapping of wings like angels flying high above to look after the earth below. //No angels are present tonight. Who will watch over me in my sleep? // He contented himself with silence, and it soon lulled him to sleep.   
  
~*~  
  
"Oh yes, I think Kuroudo brought it with him into his room, Kyousuke. You can get it from him but my guess is that he's asleep. He usually takes a nap before dinner and he did say he's going to rest."  
  
He thanked Kuroudo's mother with a small smile, starting for the flaxen-haired gearfighter's bedroom and knowing the way all too well. There had been times in the past, a year and a half at least before now, that he already considered this house his second home, being over most of the time, sometimes even spending the night, and fooling around with crushgears, gear parts and different settings for Shooting Mirage and Dino Spartan with Kuroudo in his room. The two of them weren't just any other members of the Griffon team, and they never treated each other as mere teammates, they were _best friends_. //Not anymore, we aren't.// But after what Kuroudo did…what _he_ did, their fight, they've never talked to each other ever again. Not until an obnoxious boy named Kouya Marino entered their lives more than a year later and started bugging them about joining his team anyway. //It feels weird to be here and not have Kuroudo by my side, his handsome face practically glowing with happiness as if he had never been sad or scared in his entire life, just like a child.//  
  
He paused right outside the wooden door, doubt gnawing at his stomach, pain spearing his heart, burning sensation in his eyes, and numberless questions entering his mind at dizzying rates, one after the other: //What happened to the Kuroudo I used to know, the one sweet and warm? Why had he become cold and detached, his smiles no longer the brilliant ones he had before? Will he ever be able to forgive me for what I've done just to make sure he wins? Will I ever be able forgive him for betraying me? Can I forgive myself and get _him_ to forgive himself? Am I…am I the reason he has turned into something he is not? Am I the one who changed him into the callous one he is now? Can he ever forgive me for this? Will he be able to turn back into the person I once knew? Will he ever be…will he ever be my…will he ever be my best friend…again…? //  
  
He shook his head feverishly before any more, probably _worse_, questions can fill him after that last one, not even thinking as he gripped the doorknob tightly with one pale hand and turned it to open the door leading to Kuroudo's room. A good thing that it was already evening, else he wouldn't be able to enter his room without thinking it over in his head a hundred times, remembering all too well how bright it is inside during daylight. //He never liked the windows closed, now I don't remember the reason…// Pale moonbeams flitted in through the open window, illuminating the room with an ethereal glow that was nonetheless still too faint to completely vanquish the dark. Blinking to get his eyes used to the dimness of his surroundings, he silently gasped when he realized that the room has not changed at all since the last time he had been in it. Nothing had been moved or replaced, even the picture frames holding the snapshots of the Griffon team taken a year or so ago during a tournament still stood on top of Kuroudo's desk across the room. He'd expected at least those to have been put aside or thrown away.   
  
Still standing with his back pressed against the door, his hands behind him gripping the knob tightly without him even knowing it, his eyes moved to the right of the photographs, glinting when they fell upon his lavender-colored case right next to Shooting Mirage. He made his way towards it, shivering as cold wind penetrated his shirt sleeves and bit his skin, stopping to regard the open window with a glare. Just then a hand grabbed his wrist from behind, making him turn around to face the person he didn't notice had woken up.  
  
~*~  
  
He grabbed hold of the trespasser's wrist out of pure instinct, having just woken up from his nap. With his other hand he rubbed sleep from his eyes, not really alarmed but a bit wary. He heard the entity enter but certainly didn't hear him knock. "Who is this?" he asked, with a voice somewhat soft, looking up only to see a shadow standing stock-still in front of him, blocking moonlight that streamed past his sides. He blinked when he recognized the silhouette. //Wait. No, it can't be…// "…Kyousuke."  
  
"Yes," the gearmaster replied, trying to free himself from the almost deathgrip the other had on him but his efforts in vain. "Would you mind letting go of me?"  
  
Kuroudo did, without a word. His eyes have adjusted to the dark by now and he watched silently as Kyousuke continued his short trip to the desk, stopping in front of it and taking hold of his carrier's strap. Cerulean eyes sparkled confusion when the gearmaster abruptly released his grasp on the dark material and it fell, forming a loop upon the desk with a certain violet-hued crushgear right in the middle. Pulling himself up into a cross-sitting position, the other sat down a foot away from him on the bed, increasing his bewilderment a trifle. He waited for a sound, a glare, anything, and soon got a spiteful comment.  
  
"You still fear intruders and sleep light, but keep your windows open. You haven't changed a bit, Kuroudo," Kyousuke remarked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, wrapping his arms tightly around his body, shuddering a bit at the draftiness of the room.  
  
Then the thought came to him, as if one of the nights over a year ago that the gearmaster has stayed over was just yesterday's. But still, he didn't miss the scornful tone he used and Kyousuke is no longer his best friend…right? With a slight shrug and cold glare, Kuroudo side-glanced at his companion with a small mocking smirk on his face, said into the dead silence of the room, "Cold, Kyousuke? You're wearing a T-shirt _and_ a long-sleeved shirt with a scarf around your neck, brat."   
  
"Brat?" echoed Kyousuke, a bit stunned. //It's been awhile since he has last called me that…over a year really.// But he got over his surprise soon enough, attempting a derisive laugh though it came out as a nervous one. "This damn cold room's the reason I started dressing like this, remember?" He closed his eyes, waiting for a carefully constructed retort, but it never came. Instead he felt a warm material being draped across his shoulders and warm arms wrapping themselves around him. //This is…//  
  
"Then tell me, brat, why do you still wear them now?" Kuroudo asked, tightening his hold on the gearmaster to lend him some heat. It used to be always like this before, even amidst the rest of their team. Kyousuke would always be cold in his room even though he wore the thickest of clothes, but he never asked for the windows to be closed because he knew his best friend liked them open. Every single time Kuroudo would give him a blanket, and then hold him from behind, his body warming the other's. The Griffon team would often tease them for this, but they never cared because everyone knew the truth and how close the two of them are...were?   
  
Kyousuke didn't give any answer, he didn't need to. They just sat there like that, in comfortable silence, as if the past year has not passed and they were in a time long before Kuroudo told the truth on the microchip and they decided to end their friendship. He sighed. //What's done has been done. // He pulled away, no longer feeling cold.  
  
"It's almost dinner. Staying over?" Kuroudo asked softly, just like before, the old sweet sincere smile on his lips.   
  
~*~  
  
FIN  
  
~*~ 


End file.
